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Convinced they’ll need more space for the paraphernalia of parenthood, many young couples with a baby on the way decide to move to a home that features the standard suburban trappings — a massive kitchen, endless closets and a cavernous basement.

But for New York-based artist/illustrator/designer Jacqueline Schmidt , the road to motherhood has been a journey of learning to live with less.

The path began when Schmidt downsized from a 1,200 square-foot apartment in a hip Brooklyn neighbourhood, with a large private deck and wrap-around windows, to a 500 square-foot rental.

The less-is-more philosophy was in part spurred by conversations with husband David Friedlander, communications director for LifeEdited, a company that consults on small space design, and promotes its virtues on www.lifeedited.com.

“I spent a year selling all of my belongings on Ebay, Etsy, and Craigslist. Basically it became an obsession. I started to want to get rid of everything,” says Schmidt.

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Selling off her numerous collections — of everything from brass animals to glassware — provided a watershed moment.

“The minute you get rid of one thing in the collection, it becomes easier to get rid of all of it,” says Schmidt. “And when I got rid of tables and credenzas, there was less surface space to put stuff on.”

Two large bookcases full of expensive art books were emptied — their contents sold “for peanuts.”

Schmidt found the shedding of material goods liberating. “I was happier, I had less cleaning and dusting, less stuff to manage. I loved our bedroom, which just fit a bed and not much else. It felt like a womb. The space made me feel so free,” she says.

While enthusiastically embracing small space living, the couple decided that 500 square feet would no longer work when their first child arrived.

Finding nothing suitable in New York, they moved upstate to Beacon, N.Y., into a 1,700 square-foot loft, with 12-foot high windows that looked out onto a waterfall and mountains in the distance.

“It was beautiful,” says Schmidt. “But we hated it. It was way too large. The acoustics were terrible. And we had to drive everywhere.”

So the search for an apartment in the city was back on. Schmidt, who is also a designer, decided that they needed to find a place that could be custom-designed to suit a minimalist lifestyle.

Eventually, they chose a 675 square-foot apartment in Brooklyn.

It was, says Schmidt, “a mess,” with dropped ceilings, warped floors, and peeling pink laminate in the kitchen. The layout was awkward and a non-functioning dumbwaiter in the hallway gobbled up much- needed space.

To start, everything was torn down to the beams and the rafters, and the kitchen was reconfigured into a galley. Original windows were kept, and new ones were added, so that from any room of the house, there’s a window in every direction, allowing light to flood in.

The master bedroom, which can be closed off by a custom-made sliding door, has a high-quality, beautifully designed Murphy bed from Resource Furniture. With the bed up, it turns into an L-shaped living room, or a home office. There are also fold-away bunk beds in the kids’ room.

Wall-to-ceiling built-ins in the hallway provide ample storage space, and a new birch cabinet in the kids’ room will house gear for baby number two, who will arrive in December.

Schmidt points out that having a small footprint has allowed her luxuries that would have been too expensive to install in a larger space. The kitchen, for example, features a stunning marble counter-top and backsplash.

The result is a flowing, serene space so efficient and so handsome that it was featured in Dwell magazine’s small space issue (September 2014).

The new space has done more than provide Schmidt and her family a beautiful, high-functioning home. It’s also inspired her second children’s book, based on a bear called Patchwork.

In Patchwork Goes Under Cover, the small bear encounters a string of other animals — including birds, butterflies, and wild bears — looking for their own safe and restful place to live. Featuring Schmidt’s deft, delicate illustrations, it will be released November 25 by Pow! Kids Books.

The real-life Patchwork is over 100 years old. Given to her by the family of an ex, Schmidt says that, though tattered and threadbare, he’s become a powerful symbol for what matters in life.

“Being a mom now, and really losing my desire to consume, I wanted to share a story about how we carry so much stuff, not even thinking how much it impacts our lives, and how much you gain when you pare down the essentials.”

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